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Friday, September 29, 2006

The last few days when getting off the the freeway, it has been a mess. When you turn left off from the off ramp on to Rawson Ave going east there is road construction. The first sign you see says 'two left lanes closed ahead'. So like you should do, everyone moves into the far right lane.

Good right?? Wrong!! It is the right lane that is closed first. So now everyone is trying to move back into the left lanes. Today there happened to be an accident that was blocking the left lane so now you have both outside lanes trying to move into the center lane. What a mess that was. It took over 10 minutes to get thru a section that is about a mile long. GRRRRR!!!

I want to send out a shout out to the Blonde. She was in a serious car accident a little over a week ago. She is still in the hospital. Hope you get better soon.

Talked to my sister earlier in the week. My niece, C, was nominated to be a student ambassador. This means that if selected she has the opportunity to spend a month in Italy and Greece next summer. It is a great honor but the catch is that she needs to come up with about 6 grand for the trip. So now she is thinking of all these ways to raise the money. She got pissed at me when I told her the most obvious one (ok, at least it was obvious to me) I told her how about getting a part time job. She only works part time now as a waitress. She gave me this bullshit about not having the time. Well, if she would get her ass out of bed before 11 am, maybe she could find the time. My niece, C, who is now 12, is the one who gets up on her own, gets ready for school and gets the two little ones up and ready for school (they are 4 and 5). For being 12, my sister puts way to much responsibility on her shoulders. She should be having fun. Oh well... as long as she does not rope me in to helping out, I don't really care.

Thursday was Boomer's birthday. He was 1. Our little boy is growing up. We started working with him and training him on using the Invisible Fence. We had it installed 3 years ago and it works great for Rufus and Riley. You have to mark where the fence is with flags. Kinda like the ones Digger's Hotline uses to mark your yard. So we have about 100 flags outlining the perimeter of our yard. Right now, we have the collar just beeping. When the collar beeps we pull him back from the flags. The next step is to introduce the shock. Don't worry, it is not a strong shock. More like a strong static electricity shock that you get in the winter. It startles them more than hurts them.

When we got up this morning, the house was cold. Temp was hovering right around 62. Told hubby, guess it is time to turn the furnace on. He said yeah, guess so.

Fast forward to 5pm. I get home think to myself, "Self, it's kinda chilly in here. Have to turn the furnace on." I have a parrot that doe not care for the chilly temps.

So I walk over to the thermostat and flip the switch to Heat. Go grab the dogs from their crates and head outside. 15 minutes later come back in to the house and think, damn, still chilly in here. And that's strange normally when turning the furnace on for the first time in 8 months you expect it to kinda smell dusty, musty. No smell. I go over to the register and put my hand in front of it. Nothing. Ok, walk over to the thermostat and check to see what it is set to. Thinking that we had it turned down so low that it did not kick in. Bumped up the temp to 70. Still nothing. SHIT!!

I promptly get on the phone with my dad. He asks me some questions and thinks it may be the igniter. The good news is that lucky for me he is handy and that he said he will come over and take a look at it. Hopefully, it is something that he can fix. If not there goes a nice chunk of change to have that fixed on a Saturday.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

This afternoon, it was really nice out so I went for a ride on my bike. Today's route is what I call county line loop. I ride to the county line and back around. It is a short ride only 11.5 miles but a nice ride. Lots of people out on the bike path.

Today's challenge was not avoiding people but poop. Both dog and horse. Along County Line road there are a couple of bridle paths where folks can ride their horses. Now when I was in high school, I used to ride horses and show them, so I know that you cannot always control when your horse is going to poop. But you can clean it up if it is on the path. Same thing for dog owners. I am very anal (ha, I said anal:) about making sure that I pick up our dog's poop, I just wish that others were as well. I came along a section of road that I literally had to swerve to avoid 2 horse and 2 dog piles. All within about a 100 foot section. I don't even care if you don't pick it up and dispose of it properly. Just get it off the path so that I don't have to ride my bike thru it.

Well now for sports. Badgers lost and the Packers won. Badgers kept it close in the first half. They will be ok this season, I think. We will have to get a group together and go out for the game if they ever play a game later than 11am. Sloppy play for both teams. At least we know that the Packers will not have a winless season. It will be a bad season but not winless.

ZOBMONDO!!

Would you rather....

Eat five extremely green bananas (green enough that the peel breaks off instead of bending)

----OR----

Eat five extremely overripe bananas (with an entirely brown peel and the actual fruit all brown and mushy)?

Friday, September 22, 2006

Yesterday, we get a call from hubby's sister. Now some background info on this situation. Since hubby's mom died about 3 years ago, we have had very little contact with the rest of his family. His sister tends to be rather high drama people and is rather exhausting to be around. Last Christmas when his brother and family that live out east were home no one even bothered to call us and let us know that they were home. It is fine by me. I think that this is a decision that hubby needs to make on what kind of contact, if any, he has with his family. but anyway, back to my story...

Apparently, hubby's older brother, C, is now in Bagdad, Iraq. He works for the NSA (National Security Agency). He left on Sept 2nd and will be there until Jan 7th. We just found out he is there yesterday. I am soooo glad that someone in the family decided to tell us he was there. She wanted to give us his email address and asked us to write him from time to time as he has alot of free time on his hands. He is working at one of Saddam Hussein's palaces that was turned into a US military compound. Sounds like it is some really nice digs. He works 7 days a week and 12 hour days. Because he is a civilian, he can not leave the compound. I don't quite know why but assume that it is for his safety. Sis told me that he is getting paid bookoo bucks for being there for the 6 months. Like I said before, I am so glad that they told us that he is there... would have hated for something to happen and then find out that he is there.... oh well...

ZOBMONDO!!

Would you rather....

As a man, crap a softball

----OR----

pee a marble?

I would think that crapping a softball would be less painful. I understand that peeing a kidney stone can be very painful, let alone a marble.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

I know that if I want to have people come and visit my site, I will actually have to post more often than once a week. I am going to try and post with more frequency. I have lots to say but little time to write.

Let's start off with a bit of a recap.

Last weekend hubby was out of town for the Packer game with some friends. My original plans had me camping with the gang but due to lack of a dog sitter (my parents were out of town as well), I was home alone for the weekend. That was ok with me. It sounds like from Aleta and StB that I missed the blood bath from the mosquitos. I had to take the boys to the groomer and wanted to get stuff done around the house.

I also got some time in to ride. It was nice out for most of the weekend. On Sunday, K and her sister and I rode in the "Wine ride" in Cedarburg. It was a nice ride that started out a bit rough. I am hoping that K will email the pics she took (hint, hint). I will then post them for your viewing pleasure. We got no more than 2 minutes from the parking lots of the school where we started and the skies open up with rain. We took refuge under a big tree along the street and waited it out. Luckily, it only lasted a few minutes. Then we proceeded to ride on the wet streets. My ass and feet were all wet from the road spray. Thanks god, it was warm out or the rest of the ride would have been miserable. I rode about 15 miles with K and C, they then split off to ride the 60 mile route.

I think it may have been a first, K did not get lost on an organized ride. Have to remember that one for the record books. I rode the 30 mile route and finished it with a total riding time or 2:15. I was happy with that. I had a total time of 2:49 but that included about at least 10 minutes at the last rest stop getting by derailleur adjusted after I dropped my chain going up a big hill. That was a pain in the butt. But I did learn how to adjust it on the fly now. There were a couple of big hills that I was very proud that I made up. Very slowly but I made it. I am now looking forward to the Beer ride in a couple of weeks. There were two hills that last year I had to walk up them. I am hoping that with better conditioning and a bike that is almost 10 lbs lighter I can make it up the hills.

Work has been getting better. Our new boss is ok. He has alot of grand ideas but we are slowly bringing him back to the real world. I seen my old boss this morning and she looks so much better. I guess less stress will do that to you.

ZOBMONDO!!

Would you rather....

Turn around three times before you sit down anywhere

----OR----

do a little jig before you go through any doorway??

I will go with turning around three times. My dogs do that alot and why can't I.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

The week that went from bad to worse. It was all work related and not personally.

It started out on Tuesday that everything decides to take a dump. We had a processor board go bad on our server. We worked with the vendors to get it replaced, that went smooth. Where the shit hits the fan is that one person, who we call 'Endora' as in the witch from Bewitched (this person is a bitch, with a capital B). She sends me an email asking if a page had gone out on the server going down and needing a new board. I reply back that "no, a page did not go out". I had already checked with my boss's boss to see if she thought a page should go out. She said no. Well then, Endora replies back that normally a page is sent out and when did the process change and why wasn't she informed. My boss replied back to her the next day saying that nothing has changed, and since the ticket remained a low priority, the process (Endora's group) dictates that no page is needed. Endora has been a pain in everyone's ass for the last few years. At one time I reported to her and was soooo happy when I moved to another team. I will save that story for another time.

On Thursday, my boss calls a team meeting. Nothing surprising here as we got a new team member and my boss and I had talked about some changes that she wanted to make on the team in regards to another person. So we get into the meeting room and we are all connected by audio (as one person works in St. Paul). My boss's boss is also involved. Nothing new there as we figured that this was her introduction to our new team member. My boss starts out by saying that every so often people need a change as they get in a job that after awhile is no longer right for them. Maybe they are getting bored, tired or burned out.

Then she drops the bomb. Effective immediately, she is no longer our boss and another person, S. is taking over. WHAT?!?!. I was so totally blown away by this. I was not expecting this at all. I was all prepared for her to announce the other change that she had been talking about but not this. I am sitting there listening to everyone talk and the next thing I know I have tears streaming down my face. SHIT, what a wuss am I?? I was just so totally blown away by this that I was not prepared. I really like my boss and have worked for her for most of the last 6 years. She treats me very well and has really pushed me to grow professionally. am doing things that I would have never thought possible. The new guy is ok, but the scary part is that you never know what will happen.

I know that part of the reason that this occurred is because my boss and Endora do not get along at all. Over the last couple of months it has been getting worse again. I know that this has had an impact on my boss's health as she has a chronic condition that being under stress does not help. I hope that the new guy, S, can keep Endora in line. We will be sitting down this next week to go over some stuff, so we can talk about it then.

Thursday, was our wedding anniversary. 15 years. Who can believe it?? It is hard to believe that we have been married that long and that no one is dead yet. The time has really gone by fast, and for the most part it has been good. We really did not do much to celebrate, went out to eat on Saturday. We got new bikes earlier in the year and that was our presents for each other for birthday's and anniversary this year. Plus I really did not need any new jewelry. Hard to believe that one, eh?? Me turn down big, shiny diamonds....

ZOBMONDO!!

Would you rather....

Constantly be mistaken for the opposite sex

----OR----

find out that you were voted the "Ugliest Classmate" by your entire school.

Well, since my 20 year class reunion is coming up in a few weeks, I hope that it was not the second option. I would have to go with being mistaken for a man. Altho' with my boobs that would be hard to do.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

The long weekend is over and summer has unofficially ended. Where did the time go?? It seems like it was jut last week that we were looking forward to the first camping trip of the season and now it is almost time for the last one of the season.

Hubby and I did not do much this weekend. He got his bike back late last week (it is all better now and he has learned not to mess with it if he doesn't know what he is doing.) We did a bit of riding. My legs are tired. I'm glad that I took today off.

Today is Boomer's second day without the dog sitters coming over. He did really good. No messes in his crate. I was so proud of him! Let's hope that he can keep it up.

On Sunday, hubby and I went to the grocery store. Pick-n-Save is the local joint. We are wandering around and hubby notices a guy who is about 45-50 ish. Normal looking (meaning he did not appear to be mentally challenged). As I turn around to look at him, I almost scream with laughter. The guy is wearing tan shorts. They are a bit tooo short as his dark blue boxers are sticking out of the legs by about 3-4 inches. They are also hiked up in the middle. Oh Boy!! What a sight. Did he not notice that when he put them on?? Was there no one at home to tell him?? Guys, weigh in on this... do you look in a mirror before you leave the house to make sure nothing is hanging out?? I know I do. All I can say is that I am glad it was his underwear and not his package.

On Monday, I put our old hybrid bikes out on Wheel & Sprocket's free classified site. In less than one day, I had 4 emails about them. I was shocked. The guy is coming out on Friday to pick them up. I had kinda put them up on a whim to see if we got any takers on them. We probably would not use those bikes again and figured why not get them out of the basement and make a spot of extra cash. When hubby brought them up from the basement for me on Monday, so I could take some pictures, I could not believe how big and bulky they were. My road bike (the pink streak) weighs like 14 lbs (Riley weighs 13 lbs). My old bike had to be double that. ugghhh... no wonder is was so hard getting up that hill for the beer ride last year.

Speaking of which, if anyone is interested... come join us for the beer ride. Here is more info.... You can come out for the food, music and beer if you don't want to ride. We are riding with P & K and K's sister. Hubby and I will only do the 25 mile ride. I need to save my body for the drinking that will follow. Gotta love the one called Spank Me Baby! Barley Wine Ale

I am trying to figure out why gas has dropped like .50 in the last month. It seems like every day, I come home from work and drive by the bevy of gas stations to find that it has dropped another 3-4 cents. Today is was down to 2.68 in Brookfield. I figured it out and so far this year we have spent over 3800 in gas. How crazy is that??

ZOBMONDO!!

Would you rather....

Call an important client by the wrong name

----OR----

blank on your fiance's parents' names when you introduce them to your parents?

Have to go with the parents. They should remember how stressful it could be, have the 'rents meeting for the first time. I was lucky that my folks and hubby's folks got along. They would go play bingo and stuff together.